A couple of months ago, I had the chance to speak at one of the respected Magento Developer conferences. I would like to share with the readers how I prepared myself for the presentation, how the talk went, what happened during the talk, and what the feeling was after I finished my first public Magento speech. I also hope that this will be helpful and inspiring for developers who plan to speak at a conference. If you are interested in the presentation slides, you can view them here: http://www.slideshare.net/ceckoslab/tsvetan-stoychev-mmspeakerseditedfinal-41955664

Motivation:

Motivation will always vary between individuals, even in the case of developers discussing technical matters. Basically, we, developers, are still commonly regarded as technical people who enjoy talking about profound and complicated problems. In my observations, some people consider developers to be tech nerds who have a general dislike for talking and are unable to energize and engage the audience. I believe this to be a myth, a stereotype ordinary people will project upon developers. Indeed, you will hear this kind of myth about all professionals. I argue to the contrary – because we actually take great pleasure in talking and sharing. In my case, I enjoy talking if I have something to share, and there is somebody who is willing to listen. This is great, but I also have a sort of anxiety and occasionally lose my train of thought when speaking in front of a large audience. My chief motivation therefore was to try and speak in front of many people in order to test my anxiety and try to overcome it.